


need you to recover

by bipolyjack



Series: Blood Runs Cold [3]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: M/M, im mad because i care about you, mutual pining but neither of them realizes theyre pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 14:29:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17685245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bipolyjack/pseuds/bipolyjack
Summary: A dressing-down, a show of concern.





	need you to recover

“Garrus.” Shepard caught his arm, and Garrus let him. Everyone else was clearing out of the briefing room; only the blinking eye of EDI remained, until Shepard banished her with a wave of his hand and shut the door.

Garrus shifted his weight, traced the edge of the gauze pad that covered most of his neck and face with the talon-tip of his finger. “So, AI? Would have thought that might be sort of a sticking point.”

“What were you doing?” said Shepard, low-voiced, stern. “On Omega.”

 _Ah. Should've guessed._ “Vigilante work. Cleaning up the streets. Doing what should have been Aria's job.”

“Bullshit.”

Garrus really looked at Shepard, looked him square in the eye for the first time since he'd woken up in what he deliriously thought was the Normandy's med bay (it was, just not the Normandy he remembered), hurting all over, with a bandage gluing one mandible down and a concerned Chakwas hovering nearby. Cale Shepard was tall, for a human, but Garrus still had a good half a foot on him. “I'm sorry?”

Pressing his lips together, Shepard marched Garrus to a chair and directed him down into it. Folded his arms. “Garrus, I think by now you should know better than to lie to me.”

“Lie to you?”

“Playing dumb really doesn't suit you either.”

“Then tell me what you're on about!” Now Garrus was getting his hackles up. He took a steadying breath. “Sir, is this a reprimand?”

“You were trying to die.”

“I – what?”

A muscle jumped in Shepard's jaw. “That hole we fished you out of? You dug it yourself. You were going to take as many of them down with you as you could. You weren't planning on getting out of there alive.”

“Shepard, I was pretty low on options, I –“ Garrus tried not to sound guilty, but he could feel his one good mandible pulling tight to his face.

“What happened on Omega?” Shepard's voice had gone quiet, but laser sharp. “I heard you had a team. What happened to them?”

“I'm – I'm not prepared to discuss that right now.”

“They died, didn't they?”

“Shepard -”

“And then you wanted to die too.”

Several of the things Garrus felt himself in danger of saying weren't things he wanted to say to Shepard, now or possibly ever. He stared down into his lap, throat working. _I've wanted to die since you did. My people on Omega were the only thing stopping me. Sidonis stopped me. And then he – and then you –_

Shepard exhaled, short and tight. “I need you in the game, Garrus. I have no choice but to work with Cerberus, at least for now, and I need to know I have good people at my back. People I can count on.” A long, steady look. “Can I count on you?”

“Absolutely.” There was no hesitation; Garrus had his qualms about being in Cerberus's employ, same as any of the old squad, but he wasn't looking to check out. Not now. It was different when he'd thought Shepard was gone, but impossibly, here Shepard was in front of him now, real, alive, still frowning a little, a deep crease between his – what were those things humans had? - eyebrows.

As Garrus watched, his eyes softened. Very human, those eyes. Dark and open. “I'm sorry. About your team on Omega.”

He wasn't ready to talk about it now. But maybe, eventually, he would be. “Thank you, sir.”

Shepard nodded, turned towards the door.

“Shepard?” Garrus hadn't intended on asking, but he sure wasn't going to ask Chakwas, known gossiper. He rose stiffly from his seat, joints sore, various minor wounds twinging. “Where's Alenko these days?”

The human didn't look back, but Garrus saw his shoulders go hard under his uniform. “They won't tell me.”

The door swished open, and then shut, and Garrus stared after him, processing those four words until EDI switched on and asked him chirpily if he needed anything. Garrus only jumped a little. Damn. More than one thing he'd have to get used to on this ship.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Every Shepard is different of course, but Cale would have been Pissed to find Garrus trying to get himself killed on Omega. Because, you know. He loves him. Fic and series title from M4 Part II by Faunts (from the Mass Effect 1 soundtrack).


End file.
